Season’s greetings! As we come to the end of 2013, it is a good time to reflect on the many successes at Sharples school over the last term. A ‘good’ Ofsted report, excellent exam results for our 2013 leavers and the best progress ever recorded being made at the school. The value added data received in the last fortnight puts Sharples school in the top 6% of schools nationally. This is an outstanding achievement and recognises the relentless focus on supporting every individual child to ensure they make or exceed their set targets and reach their full potential.
Staff are working as hard as ever to prepare our current Year 11 pupils for the forthcoming GCSEs in June and we are aiming to raise standards even further. We are all actively encouraging these pupils to take advantage of every single opportunity offered to increase their chances of success by attending after school sessions and Saturday morning sessions which will be available from January. We rely on your support as parents to ensure your child attends these sessions as and when advised by school. Thank you for your support with this.
As you may remember, some of our senior team moved to promotions elsewhere and I am delighted to introduce our new senior leadership team members:
Mrs Fairclough, Assistant Headteacher Inclusion;
Mrs Gill, Director of Operations and Student Support and a member of the Senior Leadership Team;
Miss Molyneux, Assistant Headteacher STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths);
Miss Webster, promoted to Deputy Headteacher, Learning and Teaching.
We have had a very busy year and have worked very closely in the community and specifically with some of our local primary schools. Teachers from Sharples have delivered lessons in the primaries in subjects from astronomy and history to PE; October saw the impressive Wizard of Oz show with ‘Munchkins’ from the Oaks, High Lawn and Sharples primaries all taking part to rave reviews; November saw the introduction of our first Winter Market when over 500 members of the community came to either run a stall or to buy Christmas presents from the huge range of products on offer. Choirs from High Lawn and The Oaks sang at the event and feedback from parents was extremely positive; pupils and staff have organised a host of events throughout the term to raise funds for charities, our main one this year being the Philippines Disaster Fund. Thank you for your donations to all these causes.
May I take this opportunity to wish all our parents, friends and neighbours a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. I look forward to seeing all pupils bright and early on Monday 6th January in perfect school uniform as we embrace 2014 and endeavour to make it our most successful year ever.
Best wishes from all at Sharples School.
Mrs R. Quesnel, Headteacher
